1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to content-exhibition control apparatuses and methods, and more particularly, to a content-exhibition control apparatus and method which control the degree of exposure of a program to increase the audience rating of the program and the effect of an advertisement in the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Broadcasting business parties which provide (distribute) TV broadcasting without charge (do not collect audience fees from users but) obtain advertisement income from advertisers to operate their businesses. Advertisers believe that TV broadcasting is the largest advertisement medium and expect a large effect of advertisements for an unspecified number of audiences.
Since there must be an upper limit of the total time during which the audience views TV broadcasting in a day, and the audience cannot view many contents at a time, however, a broadcasting business party needs to obtain a sufficient degree of exposure (so called audience rating) by a difference from other broadcasting business parties to increase the effect of advertisements.
Broadcasting business parties and advertisers control the degrees of exposure of contents (such as programs), for example, by having a popular actor or actress appear with a high production expenditure or by putting an advertisement of the forthcoming advertisement, including those on other media, to obtain much talk in advance. Alternatively, they broadcast the program at a time slot where it is expected by statistics that many audiences view, such as a so-called prime time in a program arrangement.
Therefore, advertisers and advertising agencies have to rely on limited methods, such as purchasing an advertisement right in a time slot called the prime time or putting an advertisement in many time slots.
These methods, however, require a huge amount of money.
If it is possible that a content-exhibition method is changed for each audience, the value of an advertisement increases. Since broadcasting belongs to simultaneous-transmission-to-all-audience media, however, a content exhibition method cannot be diversified due to its nature.
With the use of bi-directional service, such as video on demand (VOD), a content-exhibition method can be individually changed. But constructing a distribution infrastructure requires a large expenditure. In addition, it is difficult to provide an unspecified number of audience with uniform quality.
A hard-disk recorder for recording TV broadcasting programs was developed several years ago. The audience can record programs into a large-capacity hard disk and can view (reproduce) the recorded programs at any time different from the on-the-air date and time irrespective of an actual program arrangement.
Therefore, the audience can record a program not broadcasted in the prime time into a hard disk and can view the recorded program (recorded content) at any time slot. Consequently, broadcasting business parties and advertisers can expect an audience rating similar to that of a program broadcasted in the prime time even for a program not broadcasted in the prime time.
Broadcasting business parties and advertisers cannot understand an advertisement effect caused by viewing (reproduction) recorded contents, just by the use of an audience-rating search performed for on-the-air broadcasting programs.
The audience is passive. Some programs recorded into a large-capacity hard disk are left as is without being viewed, in a huge number of contents.